Chapter 12: Spring, Attack From Within.

The next morning we were awoken by a knock at the bedroom door and a small voice, "It's six o'clock, you said you wanted to be at the train by quarter past seven. Kirsty showed me where things are."

We all looked at each other and Kelly said, "Come in."

The voice belonged to Karen, she and Kirsty had two trays with toast, bacon and some mugs of tea. Thank god we had a milk cow in the village, but what we would do when the tea ran out? That was another question altogether.

I had pulled the covers over my morning woody but both my wives were obviously naked, four large breasts were on show, two black and two white. Kirsty was used to seeing the girls topless but we always covered our lower halves around her, I wasn't sure how Karen would react. Kirsty came in and sat at the end of the bed as she often did in the mornings.

Anyway, Karen stood there looking awkward and passed us the tray. Kelly said, "Sit down, how are you this morning?" Karen sat in the chair in the corner and I was able to study her for the first time. She was average height and build and had a pleasant face but the thing that made her stand out was her hair, it was very pale blonde and reached to her bottom. I would have put her age around forty. She was wearing an old dressing gown that someone had donated.

Karen didn't answer and Kirsty chipped in, "Karen, I've told you, Mark is nice, he and Mummy and MumKat (which is what she had started calling Kat when we were together as a family) always look after people and make sure they are OK."

Karen looked at us and said, very quietly, but with a smile, "I have this little tinker to thank, she came in to me and told me we had to make breakfast today because Mark was ill last night, and Mummy and MumKat were very tired."

Kat turned to Karen and said, "I know you've been through some difficult times. We'll make sure you feel safe and welcome at all times."

Kelly, Kat and I chatted about the plans for the day, our trip to Filey and Kirkham Abbey. In a whisper, Kirsty identified the various people we were talking about to Karen, "Katie drives the big engine ... Scott drives the black engine..." and so on.

I told Kelly that I wanted to see Dr Worth before we left, and saw Karen visibly shudder at the mention of her name. Kelly picked up on this but didn't comment, she just said, "OK morning routine, everyone has ten minutes in the bathroom, Kat, Mark and I will share, then Karen, then Kirsty. See you all downstairs in thirty minutes." Having five people in the house with only one bathroom meant that we had to organise access to it. We were used to performing our bodily functions in front of each other so we didn't worry.

I left as soon as I had eaten and called at Graham's house to see Dr Worth, who was being held there. Graham called me to one side before I went in and said, "I'm really not happy about having her living here. When it comes to the vote tonight I will not be backing a call to allow her to stay, and you know where that leaves us."

I hadn't actually agreed to a vote but it seemed as if people expected one. I asked why he had changed his mind since yesterday.

"I spent an hour talking to her last night and she is pure evil. I've come across people like this before, the last time was in Bosnia when we were trying to 'keep the peace'. You'll never be able to trust her, I wouldn't even trust her to administer the right drugs and wouldn't let her within a country mile of any of my family, either as a doctor or as a person. I hope you don't think I am undermining your leadership but I cannot go against my better judgement on this one."

"OK. What's happened to change your mind?"

"Last night she was as nice as pie to me while we talked, but as soon as she saw Emma she turned evil and really upset her. She told her she was tart who only got with Harry because it gave her a free ride, that if it wasn't for the collapse she'd still be spreading her legs on a council estate. Then she made a comment which really spooked Emma, 'Never mind, let the little brat grow in your belly for a few months and then I can drag it out of you. Now that would turn me on!'"

"After what you've just said I don't want to speak to her now. What do Harry and Joan say? I assume she is already off Emma's Christmas card list."

"They agree and they aren't just following me, they sat with her yesterday as well."

"OK. Well, I suppose we'll have to discuss this. It's not a forgone conclusion then?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"What do we do with her if the decision is not to offer her a home here?"

"Take her to THE tree and shoot her. By everyone's admission yesterday, if she hadn't been a doctor she would have gone with Samantha."

"OK, thanks for the heads up, I think it'd be better if I didn't speak to her now and you keep a close eye on her. I'll fill Kelly in while we are on the train and we'll see what happens tonight. I promise to make her past history, in so far as we know it, clear to everyone. I'll even try to get one of Jim's group (the group from North Frodingham who hoped to remain in Newsham) to speak about her."

"That's fair enough but I repeat, she may be a doctor but I wouldn't let any of my family near her unless they were going to die anyway. If the decision goes against her we need to act quickly, as soon as she realises she hasn't fooled us she will be impossible to manage."

"OK, we'll see what happens tonight then."

We got to the train which was ready to leave and found there were about a dozen villagers on it. First stop would be Filey, hopefully they would have some fresh fish to trade for flour.

As soon as we moved off I started to talk to Kelly about Dr Worth. Kelly still wanted to try and get her on our side but I was now quite worried about her. It was only just over ten minutes to Filey and we never really finished our discussion.

The group at Filey were waiting for us, Kelly and I went into the house which was attached to the small holding to discuss our trade.

They had about sixty pounds of filleted fish that they had landed that morning ready for us. After some haggling we agreed it was worth one and a half times its weight in flour. We both thought we had a good deal, which is the best sort of trade. We had brought ice with us and helped pack the filleted fish in the wooden crates to keep it fresh.

It was impossible not to notice the state of the house they were living in, it was filthy. OK, so they had no electricity but even so, it was minging and so were they! Kat had wrinkled her nose when they visited us on the train last time. Well, they were even more smelly now that the warmer weather had arrived. How the hell they could be intimate with each other I don't know. We were glad to get out and load the fish on the train.

I told Katie to take us back to Newsham before we set off for Kirkham Abbey. I wanted everyone to have fish and chips before our meeting, it would make a change as we had all the makings of it. On the way back Kelly said, "That lot could at least set up an outdoor shower or something. Next time, Mark, I'm staying on the train!"

"Why do I get landed?"

"Because you're our leader, and both your wives say so!"

"That's not fair."

"Maybe not but you owe us, remember your bet? Well, judging by the comments from Katie this morning you've already lost, we'll find out for sure when we get back."

"Oh!" was all I could say, I wasn't surprised.

"And if you don't behave I'll tell Kayliegh that you want to do a sixty nine with her and stick your tongue right up inside her!"

I felt sick at the thought. Of the three women she still looked even muckier than the others and the BO smell around her defied description. With it being a warm day she had a short sleeve top on, showing a lot of breast flesh and hairy armpits, this just gave the smells more chances to escape!

We got back to Newsham and Cheryl met the train with Larry who was working on getting the steam plough set up. We explained that we would like to have a fish and chip meal for everyone before the evening's meeting.

We then set off back towards Kirkham Abbey. We had travelled this track a few times over the last few days so Katie allowed us to get up a bit more speed and we reached Kirkham Abbey in about an hour.

As before, Katie let out three long blasts on the whistle as we approached. Nick was waiting at the level crossing. Kelly and I got down and he exclaimed, "I thought you weren't coming back for another two weeks!"

"I have a proposal for you, we have a slight problem that you may be able to help us with."

Nick asked if we had any more people on the train and I said, "Another dozen villagers have come along to meet you all."

Again we all walked down to the village and our groups paired off with groups from Kirkham Abbey.

When we got to Nicks house he sat us down and I explained the events of yesterday, and how Blackie and I had tackled the problems that it left us with. I did not mention Dr Worth and I had told Kelly and Kat to keep her out of the conversation as well.

I asked Nick if he would be prepared to take in one of the groups, and Kat described them, both in looks and abilities. I then added that I would be prepared to send them with three 56lb bags of flour.

Nick listened carefully and when we had finished he said, "I can't give you an answer until I speak to everyone here but I'm going to recommend that we take the group in. We need more people if we are going to succeed and this group sounds as good or bad as any other that we may come across and at least we know what the problems were at North Frodingham. I could take some stragglers in and end up with an unknown set of problems."

Nick's principle wife, who was actually with him before the collapse, which was quite unusual in these difficult times, said, "Why don't we call a meeting now?"

Nick looked at us and said, "Would your people mind if we all met up for half an hour or so, you could wait in the village or return to the train."

I asked how they organised meetings and Nick said, "We all meet at the big barn by Abbey Farm. Every family has one vote, a bit like you do things, but for anything really momentous we have another rule that says we have to have a simple majority of everyone in the village as well. Anyone who is old enough to read and write can vote. In reality we only have three teenagers, and two younger children, the teenagers get a vote but not the younger ones. This vote doesn't count as 'momentous' so I only need to round up half a dozen people, plus any others that want to listen in."

Nick set about rounding everyone up while I called our group together. We sat on the banks of the river Derwent and ate a picnic lunch. It was nice to relax by the river and sit with the 3 K's. Kelly had made Karen come with us as well so I suppose they were the 4K's now! "It'll do you good to see other people and places again," Kelly had said. Karen was still withdrawn but Kirsty, with a bit of encouragement from her mum, had made it her mission to chatter away to her.

By the time we had all finished eating Nick came back to me and said, "It's all sorted, they bring three bags of flour with them for everyone's use and we'll let them have one of the abandoned houses. They can choose one when they arrive or we'll pick one and get it opened up and cleaned out for when they get here."

"I think it's best if you pick a house and prepare it for them. I don't know how the women have organised themselves in their relations with the man, there seem to be two main ways that these polygamous arrangements work, one is where they all sleep in one bed and anything goes..."

"Like us!" Kelly chipped in.

" ... or like Anthony and Steve and his family where the women take it in turns to sleep with the men."

We let everyone have another hour to chat and socialise with the people from Kirkham Abbey and then got everyone back to the train. I agreed with Nick that our spare group and their dowry would be delivered the following day. I told Nick that myself and the 3K's wouldn't be coming again, but we would let another group of older residents visit, led by Jim Bolton.

As we travelled back to Newsham we chatted about the meeting and agreed that it had gone well, hopefully the North Frodingham problems were behind us.

As soon as we returned to Newsham I could see that Larry had got the steam plough set up and they had made a start ploughing. Dan was there and, even more surprisingly, the two sons of the farmer from the south of us who refused our offer of help in the winter.

The 3K's went home, and I joined Larry and Dan on the twenty acre field that we intended to plough first. I then saw Arnold sitting in a chair, looking a lot better, and watching things with a huge smile on his face. Mary was fussing around him and, sitting on the grass next to him, Neil and Jackie, and she was all over him like a rash!

I went up to them and they told me how they were getting on. They had made two passes across the field and everything was working well but learning to drive the cable drum took a bit of getting used to. Cath was on one engine with Arnold advising her, Larry made his way back to the other engine. I was watching and chatting for over an hour, gradually Larry and Cath were getting the hang of the machinery.

It was good to see Arnold better and I got the feeling Mary was sweet on him. As for Neil and Jackie, well my fate was well and truly sealed. Jackie said to me, "Thanks for everything you've done for me and the others from the sweet factory. I know you and your wives had a bit of a bet on us, well you lost, Neil was all man last night!"

Neil blushed and said, "Dad and I had no concept of how things had gone to rat-shit during November and December. I can't believe the stories Jackie told me. I miss my wife and children, not knowing what has happened to them makes it worse, but it seems that everyone has lost someone dear to them over the last year. Jackie made me realise that I either get on and make the best of it, or give up and become another casualty of the collapse."

I sensed the hand of Arnold behind this as well and, although I was gutted to loose the bet, I was pleased for Neil and Jackie, even though she had pissed me off somewhat when she lived with us.

I then spoke to the two sons from South View Farm and they were apologetic. "We now realise that you've made a good effort at creating a viable community. Dad is still in a world of his own but we'd like to help you and our wives will pitch in as well. As a sign of our intentions we've told Larry that he can take our seed drill and harrow and try to modify them so they can be pulled by these engines."

This was a welcome development and I asked them if they were staying at South View Farm. Both answered, "We'd like to but we're nearly a mile from the village." I told them that I would see if we could at least get them a phone so that they could contact the village if they needed to.

We then got into a long discussion about farming techniques with the equipment at our disposal and decided that we needed to find a reaper binder and a threshing machine. They thought they could help with the threshing machine, they knew where there was one which had been a 'working museum' piece until two years ago. They also said that the cable driven system should be able to pull two horse drawn binder reapers if we could lay our hands on them.

They asked if I had thought of going back to horses and I said, "Quite frankly, no. Not because I'm against them but because I don't understand them. I'm an engineer and I can see that we should be able to maintain our steam powered equipment for many years. The technology is simple and most of the equipment was built to last, after all most of it was built eighty to a hundred years ago and still works. OK, it takes quite a bit of TLC to keep it running but we can afford that. After all, with the equipment and skills we have here, we could forge a new cylinder for a steam engine but there is no way we could make a new engine management system for a modern diesel engine."

Charlie, the older brother, said, "With the set up you have here you should be able to maintain equipment like the threshing machine and binder reaper. I can remember my granddad telling me that the local blacksmith did all the repairs. You wouldn't stand a cat-in-hell's chance with our combine harvester, it's too complicated. You also should think about horses for some of the lighter tasks, it'd beat hand power. I know a few farmers started to look at horse power again when fuel supplies became erratic."

I was pleased that they seemed to be 'with the program' with regard to the level of technology we could maintain in the long term.

Charlie then offered his wife to help with introducing horses. "Sheila was into horses and riding before the collapse but we got rid of her two hunters when things went south. I know she would enjoy it and it would give you another option. Problem is, I don't know where you'd find draft horses now."

It was now nearly six o'clock and the 3K's had told me to be back by six, to wash, change and eat before the meeting at seven-thirty. No doubt my loss of the bet would be known by now, everyone was talking about Neil and Jackie, and I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

I got in about five past six and Kat called me upstairs, "Come on, get washed and changed. We've set up a deep fat fryer in the steam engine shed using two large metal bins and some of the unused vegetable oil. It won't be wasted, after all we can still use it for bio-diesel once it's too old for frying food."

We were all ready and changed by a quarter to seven and made our way to the shed. As we approached it we caught the smell, the one that reminded me of seaside holidays at Bridlington as a child. I felt as if I hadn't eaten for weeks!

As we entered the barn we could see that Dawn and Stella had set the drums up on bricks and had made a small fire under each one. The children were bringing small bits of wood to keep the fires burning right.

Dawn said, "My grandparents had a chippy, this brings back some memories."

Stella then handed us plates with large pieces of battered fish and a big pile of chips at the side of it. We salted them and sat down to eat. Everyone was happy. It made a change to have something different to eat as, through the winter, we had all lived on stews with bread; nutritious, don't get me wrong, but boring after a while.

As we ate everyone crowded around and wanted to know all the details of the happenings over the last few days. Most wanted to hear our version of events at North Frodingham but I told them to wait until the meeting and we would give it then, I did not want to repeat the story five or six time beforehand.

When we had a minute I filled Kelly in on the developments at Railway Farm, and the fact that the Coates brothers were joining us and had already come up with some good ideas. Well, they weren't really joining us, more that they were going to help.

Kelly was pleased and said, "My thought, to leave them to stew for while has obviously worked. Have you asked them down here?"

I told her I had and, as if on cue, the two brothers and their wives walked in with old man Coates bringing up the rear.

Kelly then said, "Did you speak to Jackie?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well then, you realise that you owe me and Kat one forfeit each."

"Do I?"

"Yes you do, and you know it! They spent last night together and, apparently, she's all over him."

"OK. I lose!"

"Good, at least you admit it. Kat, did you hear that," Kelly announced in a voice that everyone could hear, "Mark will be giving us one forfeit each,"

By now it was nearly quarter to eight so Kelly and I went to the table that had been set up for us to use, and tonight Marie was making notes.

I opened the meeting by giving an account of our actions in North Frodingham, I then outlined our actions in dealing with the survivors. I glossed over Samantha, but told everyone that the two remaining bad boys were executed. Michelle looked fairly glum at this news but said nothing, the general murmuring told me everyone else supported us. A couple of people asked why we didn't just bring all the rescued people back here and I was honest, I felt that North Frodingham had fallen victim to point scoring between families, and petty squabbles. I didn't want to bring those problems here. I felt that the people did have something to offer but they would be better split up otherwise I was worried the old rivalries would surface again.